Page 50 of Kiss of Smoke

“Timothy and Sam,” he said bitterly. “You put your fucking thorns right through them. I got put on clean-up duty for that, thanks, by the way.”

Oh, Blessed Branches. Ioin was the driving force in the Unstained Souls that wanted me dead—and Carabosse had saved me in more ways than one.

She’d stopped the Souls from the alley on Main Street from coming back to kill me for sure.

I’d never wished so badly that I’d been wrong about someone.

I realized Ioin was still talking, and that I’d completely tuned him out, torn between horror at the fact that he’d tried to kill me, and a sick sort of gratitude to Carabosse.

“—so you get to stick around for a while before you die for a higher purpose,” he said, looking bitter.

“What purpose is that?” I asked, my heart galloping in my chest.

“To help the Ghosthand.” He shrugged, as though we were discussing the weather. “What higher honor is there?”

Ioin reached out to run his fingers over the cage, tracing an elaborate pattern. A ring on his index finger sparkled as he drew the design, creating an unlocking spell.

It was such bullshit that he could use magic outside the box of cold iron and I couldn’t.

But the minute he opened this door and I was free, I’d spin my ring, and vanish right in front of his eyes—

He yanked it open, and threw something at me.

Something hot struck my face, like flames sizzling over my skin.

I bit back a shriek, trying to claw at the flaming object, and realized it was the cold iron chain I was tangled in.

Ioin smirked at me, grabbing the chain and wrapping it around my raised hands. Fresh new welts rose under the cold iron.

“I know all about your little tricks,” he taunted, tightening the chain around my wrists like a leash. He twisted the emerald ring off my finger and tucked it in his pocket, followed by the shadow-spinning ring. I felt a pang of regret; that ring had saved my life more than once. “We turned your own magic against you.”

“Yeah, we’re all well aware of that,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to push the pain in my hands back into some distant corner of my mind. “But you want to know something, dickhead?”

This Ioin was like a totally different person. He just looked at me, not responding to the insult the way he would’ve last year. “What?”

I tried to smile, but it probably looked more like a grimace. It didn’t help that tears had gathered in the corners of my eyes. “You know our artifacts suck out your life force, right? You’ve probably been using them all willy-nilly, totally unaware that every time you tap into them, you’re taking years off your own life.”

It was total bullshit. I knew evanesce rotted human brains, but the artifacts were probably safe enough for all I knew.

Ioin’s blank expression changed to chagrin, his brows snapping together. “What? That…that can’t be true…”

I nodded sagely, letting a tear roll down my cheek. “It is. So, I hope you’ve had a good time, because you probably won’t be around for much longer to enjoy all the chaos you caused.”

My ex’s scowl grew deeper, and he jabbed me in the ribs, hard. “Shut the fuck up, Briallen. You always talked too much.”

I sucked in a breath and bent over, pain radiating through my side.

Honestly, it just wasn’t fair how much I got my ass kicked on a regular basis.

Only the fact that I knew my guys would be looking for me kept me from completely falling apart. By now they would’ve noticed I was gone, and Ioin would have no idea what hit him when they showed up.

Especially if Gwyn got his hands on him first.

But I wanted them to save the best for last, because I was going to pummel the ever-loving fuck out of my ex when they showed up.

I slowly straightened up, taking even, shallow breaths. “Hey, Ioin. Were you friends with Steve?"

He gave me another one of those eerie, blank looks. I didn’t like those at all, because there was no light behind his eyes.

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